KSS to Present Sessions on Fuels Price Optimization

Price optimization and statistical modeling authorities from KSS, the fuels pricing experts, will deliver research-based presentations at two leading industry conferences this summer. First, KSS will present at the 10th annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference, to be held at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, June 16 – 18, 2010. Following, KSS will deliver a paper to the 24th European Conference on Operational Research, EURO XXIV, to be held at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon in Lisbon, Portugal, July 11 – 14, 2010.

For the upcoming INFORMS conference presentation, KSS will present on “Retail Gasoline Pricing – Modeling Branding Strategies Within a Bayesian Hierarchy.” The INFORMS Conference is a leading international event for academics, students and practitioners engaged in the science, art and practice of revenue management and pricing. The conference will feature a mix of academic and industry presentations covering new developments and current applications of revenue management.

At EURO XXIV, KSS will present a paper entitled “Optimization of Forecourt Fuel Pricing” to the Revenue Management stream segment of the conference. EURO XXIV is a leading European conference dedicated to operational research. Academicians, researchers and practitioners, as well as students interested in any branch of operational research, mathematical modeling or economic analysis typically participate in the conference and present papers.

“At KSS we not only feel our business intelligence and price optimization tools set us apart from the industry, but we also continuously update our software and develop new analytics,” said Bob Stein, president and CEO of KSS. “We are honored to be included among the presenters at these prestigious conferences, a reflection of our commitment to having the most scientifically based price optimization software, and a leading edge in the market.”

The presentation at INFORMS from KSS will address how retailers evaluate and price their fuels brands. KSS will demonstrate the benefits of using a pricing model for fuel retail brands, which supports a strategic decision making process. According to Stein, KSS’ robust and flexible modeling approach gives accurate predictions of brand market share and site sales. It also allows investigation of the competitive layout of a given market and determines the value of a brand. The presentation at INFORMS will include results from the model, along with possible actions for operators wishing to improve brand pricing strategies.

Stein adds that the EURO XXIV presentation will focus on applying price optimization to automotive fuel sales. The paper will review the current pricing problem and explore technical approaches to demand modeling and price optimization. It will also analyze results from a price optimization software test at a U.S. fuel retailer. The presenters will show how, during the test, they achieved increased gross profitability by 0.6 U.S. cents per gallon, without significant volume loss. The presentation concludes by illustrating how expanding this methodology to the enterprise level allows for a price-volume tradeoff between retail sites – which can be performed at a supervisory level above the site-level optimization.

ABOUT KALIBRATE TECHNOLOGIESalibrate (formerly KSS Fuels) is the only global provider of fuels pricing and retail location intelligence, helping retailers fine-tune decisions to deliver on performance goals. Its proven software, analytics and consulting solutions draw on more than 20 years of expertise and insight into the needs and opportunities of petroleum retailers. Kalibrate has headquarters in Manchester, United Kingdom and Florham Park, New Jersey. The company also has a Center of Excellence in Tulsa, Oklahoma and sales operations in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, Canada, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Korea and Africa. For more information about Kalibrate, please visit Kalibrate.com.